today secretary of state hillary clinton was in the czech republican today and she said if syria uses biological or chemical weapons that that would be quote a red line and the united states is prepared to take action if syria uses those weapons. well, and as this is all happening there appears to be some shifting in syria. in the past few days we've seen heavy, heavy fighting around damascus as rebels begin pushing in that area. there is cause to think the syrian government is losing its grip on damascus, that may be part of the reason why they are preparing their chemical weapons. the syrian government of course has said it does not have chemical or biological republicans, and even if it did it would not use them. jon, we are also hearing now that the foreign minister, the spokesman for the foreign minister, rather has defected. it's more evidence, sort of more to the belief that there is some shifting ground among the bashar al-assad regime. whether or not it's close to collapsing is anyone's guess but there are big changes going on right now among the bashar al-assad regime. jon: